Zen and Industrial Management Part Deux

Now let's switch gears a moment, and leave Zen ideas and deal with other aspects of these mostly ineffective Quality programs. CEO support is critical, and certainly follow through is vital for program success. But I have made an observation about these efforts to get people to develop habits that improve their life, or work, or the quality of a product. The approach that these "systems" take are too complicated. For example, teaching statistical concepts to apply to processes frequently misses the point where a simpler tool will do. Dr. W. Edwards Deming applied statistical methods in Japan to great success. In the 1950's. In the 80's a major aerospace manufacturer made SPC (Statistical Process Control) a contractual requirement. Set up a whole department to administer it. So, the company I worked for dutifully signed contracts with this requirement from them. And even though there were very few appropriate places for it to be applied (read that: NONE) we attempted to find applications for SPC. And like all other "Quality driven" programs, it too went by the wayside, when it became too expensive and didn't provide adequate benefit.

Let's try something a bit simpler to improve quality. Again, not original, but a simple effective tool overlooked, probably because it isn't jazzy enough. Pareto Analysis. Collect data about something, like customer calls. Categorize these by their nature, such a "poor instruction manual", "awkward on/off switch",etc. On a monthly basis review the data. The category that has the highest incident spawns a team of appropriate individuals to fix the problem. Fix the problem. Do the Pareto analysis again. Fix the highest problem area. Repeat ad infinitum. Eureka! Continuous improvement. Apply it to many business areas. Multi-departmental continuous improvement!

This method was advocated by Joseph M. Juran, in the 1950's in Japan as a part of his focus on managing quality. Note the decade again. And note where it was applied. And, oh, by the way? I don't think he held a black belt (see any article on "Six Sigma" for an explanation).